Fiber materials such as continuous fibers and staple fibers are indispensable in various social and industrial fields. Currently, natural cellulose fibers, regenerated cellulose fibers such as rayon and tensel, and synthetic fibers manufactured by petrochemicals are mainly used as such fiber materials.
However, synthetic fibers are problematic in that they use non-regenerative petroleum resources; also, environmental concerns such as the consumption of large amounts of energy for the preparation of raw materials from petroleum and for the processing of such materials, as well as the problem of waste disposal exist.
On the other hand, although natural cellulose fiber and, regenerated cellulose fiber are expected to support a petroleum-free industry, since such fibers utilize natural products originating from plants, production processes of natural fibers are not necessarily energy-conserving, because rayon and tensel are manufactured by regenerating dissolved cellulose into fibers.
Since means for producing fiber materials with little energy is hoped for in the 21st century, where harmonization of society and environment is expected, novel technical approaches that can solve the problems in the production of natural and regenerative cellulose are urgently called for.
The invention of the present application has been made in view of the above circumstances, and the object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing novel fiber materials with little environmental load and low energy consumption than conventional methods of producing natural fibers.